Raven
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Download or edit the free picture Raven for GIMP online editor. It is an image that is valid for other graphic or photo editors in OffiDocs such as Inkscape online and OpenOffice Draw online or LibreOffice online by OffiDocs.
This raven was fashioned by hammering and embossing steel\u2013\u2013a most intractable medium\u2013\u2013into a being of remarkable vitality. Though motionless, the bird is caught in a lifelike pose and full of expression. The conspicuously large size and shape of the beak distinguishes it from a crow. It was designed as an okimono, or ornament for display in the ceremonial alcove (tokonoma) of a Japanese reception room. Because of its large size and fine quality, we may imagine this work was commissioned for a wealthy daimyo patron.The work is signed "My\u014dchin Shikibu Ki no Munesuke" on the underside of the body. This refers to the twenty-second master metalsmith to use this name (beginning in the twelfth century), who was active in Edo (present day Tokyo) in the early eighteenth century. This Munesuke, a noted maker of ornate helmets and armor, was known as one of the greatest masters of metal repoussé (hammered shapes). While the majority of works signed Munesuke created over the centuries are not accepted as genuine, Bashford Dean, the founder of the Metropolitan\u2019s Department of Arms and Armor, after careful comparative research, wrote in 1918 that this work represents the finest quality repoussé metalwork of the early eighteenth century.The work was once a prized possession of Edouard Mène, a noted French collector of Japanese ironwork, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was put on display at the museums Guimet and Cernuschi and elsewhere in Paris.Free picture Raven integrated with the OffiDocs web apps
